Disclosure Day Is The Alien Sci-Fi Story Zack Snyder Tried To Tell 13 Years Ago

Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Disclosure Day (2026)Whether it’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind or E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Steven Spielberg’s best sci-fi movies aren’t about aliens invading the planet. Instead, they’re about what humanity might gain and/or learn from the presence of extraterrestrial life. As such, Spielberg’s new film Disclosure Day continues exploring those themes while also examining how humanity would react to the truth about extraterrestrial life in the first place.

Disclosure Day imagines a scenario where governments have secretly known about extraterrestrial visitors for decades, only for the truth to finally be revealed to the entire world. Exploring politics, religion, science, and humanity’s perceived place in the cosmos, Spielberg’s new film wonders if the existence of life on other planets would be a paradigm shift for the better.

Keeping that in mind, I couldn’t help but think about director Zack Snyder, and how he attempted to explore very similar concepts 13 years ago with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Despite being major superhero blockbusters, both movies asked many of the same questions, which were fairly compelling. However, I still think Spielberg was the better fit 13 years later with Disclosure Day (for a few good reasons).

In Disclosure Day, it’s revealed that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth for 79 years since Roswell and Area 51 in the 1940s, and that governments and private defense have worked that entire time to keep that truth hidden from the public, all while reverse-engineering alien technology and experimenting on live subjects with invasive interrogations. In response, a group of defectors/whistleblowers decides to publicly reveal the truth to the entire world by the movie’s end, working in tandem with two humans who were chosen years prior and given abilities to help these extraterrestrials communicate with humanity.

As such, the idea of extraterrestrial life being confirmed and suddenly exposed to the entire world raises a multitude of questions.

How would this affect religion? Would governments collapse under the weight of mass chaos? Would the world be pushed over the brink and fracture…or would it rally and unite?

Spielberg addresses several of those questions in Disclosure Day, exploring how humanity might feasibly react in this scenario. Although panic, social unrest, economic collapse, and geopolitical instability all seem like reasonable fears regarding what would be the biggest discovery in human history, Spielberg offers the most optimistic outcome, one where even the imminent threat of WWIII is mitigated in the face of such a massive worldwide revelation.

With Disclosure Day, Spielberg is suggesting humanity’s collective sense of wonder, curiosity, and mystery could be stronger than its fear. While political disagreements and conflict wouldn’t disappear overnight, the idea is that this major discovery would fundamentally shift nearly all of humanity’s perspectives and priorities.

Likewise, Disclosure Day explores how belief systems might evolve after first contact as well. While we see the confirmation of extraterrestrial life strengthening faith for some, it is obvious that others would naturally start reevaluating humanity’s role within creation itself. Overall, Spielberg’s take is incredibly refreshing and quite comprehensive, even if we don’t get all of the answers by the movie’s end regarding humanity and the aliens’ potential new coexistence.

Disclosure Day Is The Story Zack Snyder Was Trying To Tell With Man of Steel & Dawn of Justice

At least for me, watching Disclosure Day absolutely brought back memories of Zack Snyder’s first two DC films.

Together, 2013’s Man of Steel and 2016’s Batman v Superman spend a significant amount of time similarly examining how humanity would react to the existence of extraterrestrial beings, namely Superman himself. That said, even before Clark Kent publicly comes forward as a hero, Earth is subjected to a similar paradigm shift in the face of extraterrestrial life. This is thanks to General Zod in Man of Steel, who hijacks every screen and device on the planet with the foreboding declaration in every language: You Are Not Alone.”

From that moment on, the world is well aware of extraterrestrial life on their planet (including one life in particular who becomes their greatest savior). Continuing into Dawn of Justice, Snyder treated Superman’s existence as something that fundamentally altered humanity’s understanding of the universe and position in the cosmos. Likewise, governments are shown attempting to regulate Superman, while politicians and the world’s greatest minds debate his legitimacy and power, and significance. Furthermore, ordinary human beings are shown struggling to reconcile with his existence, with many viewing Kal-El as a messianic figure (while others view him as humanity’s potential demise).

While many of those same conversations are present in Disclosure Day, the difference is that Spielberg approaches those questions through far more peaceful extraterrestrial contact. Likewise, without the baggage of superhero blockbuster expectations, it can be argued that Spielberg’s movie had more freedom to explore the societal consequences to a much greater degree.

While Compelling, Superman Might Not Have Been The Best Subject

To his credit, the questions Snyder asked were genuinely fascinating, though the challenge was always Superman himself. Unfortunately, the consequence of Snyder’s vision for Superman as this extraterrestrial “other” was a lack of humanity that made Superman such a quintessential hero for decades.

Typically, Superman’s defining trait isn’t his alien biology but his human upbringing. As such, focusing too heavily on his alien nature inevitably shifted attention away from the qualities that make Superman so inspirational in the first place, something James Gunn very much restored with 2025’s Superman. Clark Kent’s true greatest strength is that he’s “as human as anyone” despite his alien power, something that just didn’t translate as well in Snyder’s DC Universe.

Naturally, Disclosure Day didn’t have to worry about this major balancing act with such an iconic hero, allowing Spielberg to fully commit to exploring those same themes Snyder was interested in. Regardless, it’s interesting to look at the parallels between the two.

Disclosure Day is now playing in theaters from Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures.

Release Date

June 12, 2026

Runtime

145 Minutes

Cast

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  Josh O’Connor

  Daniel Kellner